Permission to publish from the Dr. Jerome Cochran medical account book, 1870-1878, must be obtained from the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University.

Restrictions on Access

This material is open for research.

Scope and Contents of the Papers

The account book contains an alphabetical listing of Dr. Cochran’s medical patients in Alabama, followed by individual records of visits and accounts. Patients’ addresses or occupations are often given as are the methods of payment (cash, services, goods, etc.). Also included is a promissory note dated 18 July 1877, from Eagle Lake, Texas, for $100.00 from J.B. Armstrong, for medical attention given his family in Mobile, 1874-1875.

Biographical Sketch

Dr. Jerome Cochran, a native of Holly Springs, Mississippi, came to Mobile, Alabama, in 1865. He served as Alabama’s first state health officer from 1879 to 1896, gaining a reputation as the state’s foremost medical figure in the post-Civil War period and national recognition as a quarantine physician.